Cable Cars in Mid-April: Switzerland

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You can use the Swiss Rail website to check if cable cars are down for maintenance. Simply go to www.rail.ch and enter the exact travel date. But, next year's schedules probably have been finalized yet.

In the Berner Oberland, both cable car lines are never out of service at the same time (barring some freak accident). If one is down, there's a van shuttle that runs between Murren and Gimmelwald.

Just a side note- I wouldn't recommend going to the Berner Oberland at this time of year, for many reasons.

There are no cable cars running between Interlaken and Murren. The cable cars are between Lauterbrunnen and Grutschalp (with a change to a cog train to Murren) and between Gimmelwald to Murren. If you helicopter into the Schilthorn, you can take the cable car down to Murren.

There are alternate ways to get to Murren by cable car (gondola). If one is down for maintenance, you can take the alternate method. If any are down for maintenance, www.rail.ch will not permit the trip to be booked on the down system. They will book you on the alternate.

Note that it will be "shoulder season" in Murren in mid-April. This is the dowtime necessary to change from ski season to summer tourist season. Most places in the alpine villages are closed. Check with your hotel. Some do stay open but it's quiet up there.

My family and I spent three days in Murren in early June this year, and I can confirm that most of hotels and restaurants in town had still not opened after the end of the skiing season. But the grocery store in town is open all year round (with the exception of Sundays and public holidays as we found out!), and a few of the hotels were open when we were there, so we did just fine.

Penn